


Diamond City Radio

by PinguinoSentado



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6030301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguinoSentado/pseuds/PinguinoSentado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nora puts in a special song request that sweeps Piper off her feet.</p>
<p>Unsolicited prompt fill from the comments on another work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So someone made a comment on An Ember in the Ashes about a three-word prompt fill for "Diamond City Radio." I accepted the challenge. Here we are. I don't know if I'm supposed to tag the song or not, but it's Bailando by Enrique Iglesias. If you don't know it, you're missing out.
> 
> This was written really quickly! If you see something horrible, please call it out, especially if you're one of the first to read it. Save someone else the pain of stumbling over my words. I'll thank you and so will they. As always, comments are welcome, both here and on my Tumblr (same name). If this doesn't convince you that I take fluffy requests, nothing will.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Edit: This wasn't shot down overnight so I'll go ahead and credit jess with the three-word prompt. The idea was hers, so all credit is hers.

“No.”

“Please?” Nat peeped adorably over the side of the couch.

Piper’s iron will, tested by the worst monsters of the Wasteland, shook at the sight, but still she persevered. “No.”

“Come on, Nora said it’ll be fun!”

From across the room, Nora put on an innocent smile. Piper had no trouble glaring at her. “I said no!”

“Fine! Nora will take me!”

Nat flopped off the armrest and marched to where Nora was sitting on the stairs, her Pip Boy on the floor beside her. It had been piping out some unholy, nasally tune for hours and Piper was beginning to feel the words scratching inside her head.

Nora, damn her, seemed immune to the racket and grinned as Nat crossed the room. “That’s right!” the infuriating woman stuck her chin up in defiance.

“I keep telling you, this Disney World doesn’t exist anymore!”

Nora’s voice mimicked Nat’s. “You don’t know that for sure! They built that place to last!”

The smaller, better-dressed child in the room took up the cry. “Nora’s been telling me all about it! It has to still be there!”

Piper threw her arms up in exasperation. “You don’t even know what happened to Florida!”

That put the walking antique back on her heels. “Wait, what did happen to Florida?”

“See?”

“Come on, I had family there!”

With a sigh, Piper enlightened her two children. “You know about Deathclaws?” They nodded. “Well, the science center says they came out of little road lizards no bigger than your hand.” Piper held hers up to demonstrate. Both sets of eyes went wider. “And Florida had these really big, nasty lizards even before the bombs. Alligators.”

The dramatic effect of the word was lost somewhat as the terrible voices finished crooning their awful melody. As another song began, one Piper understood was called ‘Let It Go,’ she lost her patience. “We’re not going on a road trip, so give that thing a rest. It’s driving me up the wall.”

Before Nora could retrieve her Pip Boy, Nat snatched it off the ground and made for her corner. Piper leapt off the couch and bolted after the child. Nora’s laughter stopped her. “Oh, come on, let her have it.” Nat froze, her eyes flicking hopefully toward Nora. Nora took the moment to address the little thief. “You might want to take it outside, though. Your sister looks like she’s about to snap it in half and I only have the one.”

It was not far from the truth. Perhaps Nat knew it, too, because she wasted no time in scuttling across the room and out the door. Piper watched her, allowing herself a moment of fondness. It was too rare a thing to see Nat’s innocent side, her childish nature spoiled by an older sister too wrapped up in saving the world. Nora brought it out so easily, whether with little bits of colored chalk or with a holotape that should not have existed anymore.

“I don’t know where you managed to find that thing,” Piper grumbled. “But I hope it was guarded by something nasty.”

“Worried more might get out?”

Piper shivered. “Can you imagine the terror? This place is already unlivable at the best of times, but Diamond City radio piping that thing over the air would drive the world to madness.”

“She seemed to like it,” the miserable, brilliant, beautiful woman stood up and walked to where Piper was pouting.

Journalist though she was, she put up a good fight, keeping her face stony as Nora approached. “Yeah, she loved it. Which is great if you don’t have to live with her.”

Nora put her arms around Piper’s waist and hummed. “Well, maybe that’s why I didn’t bring her a holotape player to go with it.”

“Small mercies,” Piper still did her best to resist a smile even as her traitorous hands moved to rest on Nora’s sides, pulling her in closer. “Good luck getting your Pip Boy back. You’ll be lucky if she doesn’t hide it away somewhere.”

“Maybe I don’t want it back,” Nora said slowly. Piper looked up, cocking her head to the side. “Maybe I want to stay here.”

Piper felt her heart start to beat a little faster. “You aren’t serious.” Nora smiled wider. “You’re just saying that so I don’t kick your ass.”

“Maybe,” the woman laughed easily and leaned in a little closer, tempting Piper with a few very distracting breaths. “Maybe I gave Nat that tape on purpose. Gave her an excuse to stay out of the house for a few hours.”

More than willing to believe the girl was not coming back, Piper still laughed. “You’re not that clever.”

“No?”

“Nope.”

Nora pulled away, her lips brushing Piper’s in a way that was maddeningly unfair. She was supposed to be the sly one, always dragging Nora about on a string. She liked it that way. With a glare and the crackling fire of frustrated passions simmering in her chest, she watched as Nora strolled over to the radio and clicked it on.

The last verses of Pistol Packin Mama came crisply over the set. Piper smirked. “A fitting dedication.”

“Oh, pipe down,” Nora chided, then brightened as she discovered her new favorite joke. Piper’s glare sharpened.

Before she could slap Nora with a suitable comeback, Travis’s awkward voice broke in as the song ended. “That was Pistol Packin Mama. That’s… That’s a good one. Uh… And now, we, uh… We have a request. I don’t, uh… Where did I – here it is! Haha! Ah, right. This is… Bay… Bail… bay-lando?” Nora groaned and put her head in her hands. Piper could actually hear Arturo swearing from the market. “Bailando. By Enrickay Igla-I’m not even going to try. Here it is, folks.”

The first notes of a song Piper did not recognize began humming out of the set. Nora, recovering from her mood-shattering disappointment, put aside the stuttering of the hapless Travis Miles and again swayed over to Piper. The journalist suddenly felt as clumsy as the radio host, watching the attractive woman glide effortlessly across the floor of her home.

With one perfect, slender arm extended, Nora put on her most charming smile. “Miss Wright?”

Piper swore her tongue actually turned to silver as it flopped about in her mouth. “Blue! I – I don’t – I don’t know how to dance to this! At all! I can’t, I mean, I want to, but I’ve only ever tried with Nat, and you’re, well, not her, and you’re taller, and I don’t –“

Nora’s perfect smile stopped the flood of words just as her hands closed around Piper’s wrists. “Come on, there’s no one here. It’s easy, I promise. Here, let me lead.”

It was all Piper could do not to fall over as Nora gently placed one hand on her hip and put the other on her arm. “Like this,” Nora murmured just as a man’s voice began crooning through the speakers.

Piper had never learned Spanish. She had always meant to learn from Arturo but had never found the time, something she now regretted immensely. The words flowed so beautifully, so distractingly that she nearly missed Nora leading her through the first steps of the dance.

Her feet thumped leadenly as they tripped each other, joining Piper’s metal tongue in making her look like a fool in front of the woman she loved. Nora just laughed. “Come on, you’re doing great. Just relax. Let me lead.”

The quiet swearing turned to intense silence as she followed Nora’s lead and tried to move to the rhythm. Her partner moved so carefully, so confidently that Piper knew where she was going to be before she stepped. She found herself moving easily before the first few verses had finished.

“See?” Nora whispered. “You’re a natural.”

Piper’s eyes still refused to leave the floor for more than a fleeting moment. “Sure, easy for you to say. I don’t see many people dancing anymore.”

“Maybe that’s why I want to,” Nora said as she ran her hand down Piper’s side, leading her into a twirl that seemed so natural. “Maybe I want to let you in, see what it was like before.”

Piper stumbled as she turned back to Nora. She had to say something. This was Nora.

Abruptly, the music shifted, sending Piper searching for her footing as Nora glided around her, laughing like something out of a dream. Without breaking stride, she was holding Piper from behind, cradling her arms across her body and swaying with the music. Piper flushed and laughed and swayed along with her.

“I don’t know where you find these things, Blue,” Piper managed as her flawless partner led her into another twirl and another bout of twisting, laughing bliss.

“Turns out I’m very motivated when it comes to you,” Nora pulled her in close again.

Piper let herself be held, trusting her to lead her where she had to go. Every shift, every step was a cue, a constant, quiet asking of one heart to another. Do you trust me? Will you follow me? Will you stay with me?

_Yes. Unequivocally, unfailingly, unendingly, yes._

The dance went on, unbroken by the clumsy words the women would have used in other times. In that absence, that pristine, deep silence carried on the melody that filled the air, there was no need for words. They were together.

Too soon, the song died to nothing, replaced by the shuffling, awkward words of Travis Miles. Piper did not hear them. Nora’s hands stayed on Piper’s, holding her close with the gentle urging of a woman madly in love. Piper let her head fall back against the other woman’s chest. She felt close to tears but could not say why.

“That… that was…”

Nora leaned down and kissed Piper’s trembling lips before she could find the words. “I know,” she whispered. “I love you.”

Piper kissed her back, struggling madly to find the words. “Gotta love Diamond City Radio, huh?”

Another quiet laugh set Piper’s heart skipping. “I’ll tell Travis you liked the dedication.”

With her feet finally planted on the ground and her head out of the clouds, Piper’s tongue managed to free itself from its dazed slumber. “I love you, too. You’re amazing, you know that?”

“I try.”

Piper let herself fall deeper into Nora’s arms. There was nowhere in the world she would rather be, no one in the world she would trust this intimately.

Her eyes flitted slyly to the door. “I don’t suppose Nat will be back any time soon.”

Nora’s breath hitched just slightly. “Probably not.”

Piper turned her head up, nipping at the side of Nora’s neck. “Then I think I have something I’d like to show you, too.”

There had been little time for dancing in Piper’s young life, even less when she had started looking after Natalie. There had been no one there to guide her, to keep her feet moving just where they needed to go. There had been no one to follow, no one to trust. No one left to stay with her.

Now she had Nora, and Piper would follow her, trust her, and stay with her until the end.


	2. The Wright Stuff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper starts a news segment on Diamond City Radio
> 
> Another unsolicited prompt fill from jess. Because I can't create my own ideas. Thanks for the help!

Nora loved sleep. She had loved it before the war and she loved it even more now. After wandering the Commonwealth for so long she had gotten used to not sleeping much. That was before meeting Piper, before deciding settling down in Diamond City was not such a bad idea. Now, she could sleep.

Splaying herself out in Piper’s bed, the sole survivor of Vault 111 let out a deep, contented sigh. She wrapped herself in the blankets she had scavenged, some of the best gifts she had ever found for the lovely journalist, and rolled to face the wall. Just one more hour. Then Piper would come home.

Nora grinned. She did love sleep, but Piper had such a pleasant way of waking her up. She shifted in the sheets. Piper always called herself pushy, but when it came to her family, to Nora and Nat, she was as careful and loving as could be.

The happy woman began to drift off, a smile on her face and a flutter in her heart. Travis Miles’ awkward stuttering gave way to another pre-war melody as Diamond City Radio filled the room. Her wrist felt naked without the Pip Boy, but that was all the more reason to keep it off. It reminded her of that first year outside the Vault, where every day not marked with gunfire was an odd one. Where her meals had come from scavenged food or cooked roaches instead of Piper’s makeshift kitchen.

Those days had done much for Nora. They let her appreciate the joy that was living with a family again.

They had also left her with an acute sense of danger. Nora felt the hair rising on her neck even before the words from the radio began to make sense.

“And now… uh… we have a new… announcement. Segment, I guess, is the right word?... Anyway, I know that as much as you all enjoy hearing me, heh, I’m, uh, going to turn the mic over to our very own Piper Wright.”

Nora’s eyes snapped open. _Oh, no. Oh, what are you doing now?_

Travis’s voice continued stuttering even as she heard chairs moving around in the background. “And she will be trying a new segment… I said that already, didn’t I?... Uh, it’s called, The Wright Stuff.”

Piper had yet to say a word by the time Nora had reached the door. This was bad. This was very bad. She opened the door, stepping out into the light before jumping back inside and slamming it. Why had she gone to bed wearing so little? She had wanted Piper to wake her up the fun way, not like this.

Frantically scrambling into her pants, she was hopping about in search of her jacket when she heard Piper begin to speak.

“Good evening, fellow citizens. It’s a fine day in Diamond City. I’m Piper Wright, and here are the weekly occurrences,” Nora heard paper shuffling in the background as she tripped going up the stairs and sprawled flat on her face. She scrambled over the floor to find her jacket. Super Mutants had nothing on the destructive power of Piper Wright, and that was before she was being broadcast to every radio set in the Commonwealth.

Nora bolted for the front door, grabbing for her rifle as Piper piped along in the background. “Our first story today comes from the city of Goodneighbor.”

That made Nora pause. Goodneighbor was far away. How much damage could she do with a story about them?

Piper continued. “This reporter recently travelled to the city in order to take in recent rumors about corruption in the Neighborhood Watch. What I found while I was there was a group of brave men and women, much like our own Diamond City Security, putting their life on the line for their fellow men.”

Nora waited at the door. There was something else coming. There had to be. “But Piper, aren’t those ‘men’ really Ghouls? Why yes, listeners, they are, and I know, Diamond City has a bad history with our older cousins. But, and I say this as a citizen, human, and voice of the press, they are not so different from us. It is easy to fear them, far away as they are, and easy to be caught up in the whirlwind of horror stories, but ask yourself if you’ve ever really met one. Talked to one that wasn’t a Feral. Would you like them to judge all humans by the actions of a few Raiders?”

“Our first story, my dear listeners, is one of understanding, of solidarity with our brothers and sisters out there in the Wasteland, fighting to survive, to feed their families just like we are. It is a story we are familiar with because we live it every day. And it is this story that I humbly present to you as a truth, a way for you to combat all the lies you are fed. Yes, my friends, it is easier to fear them. It is easier to blame them. But is it right to?”

Her rifle returned to the floor. Nora slowly climbed the stairs, returning to Piper’s room and sitting on the edge of the bed as the woman continued with her stories. The Goodneighbor story, while it ran directly against the Mayor’s policy against Ghouls, was not overly subversive. There were not calls to storm the office with torches, just to accept those who are different.

She still did not take off her boots. The day was young, after all.

Her stories went on in much the same way. Her next spot called out the SCIENCE! Center for its recent achievements. Apparently the two women who staffed it had made some breakthrough on water filtration. Nora settled back against the bed, daring to relax only a little, then a little more as each story came and went without riots in the streets.

“And, before we come to our last story,” Piper’s voice came from the Pip Boy. “A very special thanks should be made on behalf of our school here in Diamond City. An anonymous donor –“

“Anonymous?!” Nora blurted.

“ – Recently doubled the size of the school’s reading material after bravely scavenging the ruins of Boston.”

Nora stewed in the absence of fame as Piper continued. “Everything from textbooks to pulp novels are now resting safely on the shelves of our very own schoolhouse, and it’s all thanks to this stranger. I don’t know about you, but I think she deserves a very special thanks.”

That got a laugh out of Nora. She had already been profusely thanked after bringing them back, but a little extra attention would not go amiss. Nora began shimmying out of her coat. It sounded like Piper was wrapping up and she wanted to make it as easy as possible for the woman to express her gratitude.

“And finally, a local story that has been on all of our minds…”

Nora grabbed her jacket. “Don’t do it, Piper. If you ever loved me, you won’t –“

“Is the Institute poisoning our water supply?”

Nora flopped back on the bed. “You never loved me, did you?”

 

The door to Publick Occurrences slammed closed as Piper stormed in. Nora could hear her from upstairs. “Cancelled. One little story and ‘Oh, Piper, you can’t say that over the air.’ Well, you told me I couldn’t print it, either, and how’s that working out for you?”

“If I come in here one day and find you with a ham radio, I’m leaving you,” Nora warned from upstairs.

“They kicked me out! After one story, after all those nice, happy stories, they couldn’t listen to one serious piece of news!” something crashed into the wall downstairs. Nora hoped it was her boots being thrown across the room and not something important.

“I read that story, Piper. You said yourself that there was no hard evidence.”

“That doesn’t mean it isn’t happening!”

The stairs creaked as the one-time radio star stomped her way up. Nora waited until she could see her lovely, unhappy face before speaking. “Why bring it up?”

“Because people need to know the truth!”

Nora sat up on the bed as Piper collapsed beside her. “It isn’t like you to spread rumors. Why keep bringing this up?”

Piper looked over at Nora, her eyes tired, sunken, and wildly alive. “People are getting sick. You’ve noticed, too. The med clinic is much more crowded than usual. And the doc thinks this is something other than the usual dead Bloatfly they fish out every few weeks.”

“So why not wait? You know I would have checked it out for you.”

“We would have checked it out,” Piper corrected. “And we’re going to. It’s just easier to do if people already have it on their minds.”

The usual gleam in Piper’s eyes brightened them even more. Nora never could pin down their color. Today, they glowed a deep amber as flecks of gold and black swirled on the surface. “So, you’ve got our next adventure all planned out?”

“Don’t I always?” Piper gave her a happy smile. She loved doing this. It wore her to the bone and tore at the last of her sanity, but she loved being the hero. Nothing in the world meant more to her than making the world a little more livable.

Nora pulled her close. “So, this anonymous donor.”

Piper let herself be pulled. “You liked that, did you?”

“That depends,” Nora rolled on top of Piper, her hands wandering slowly down Piper’s midsection. “You said you would give her a very special thanks. Is that right?”

Piper bit her lip. “Mm, I did, didn’t I? Anything in particular I can do for this stranger?”

“You can take off that jacket, Miss Wright, and leave being a hero for tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I think this is going to be the start of a smaller, more fluffy story arc than what exists in Papergirl. Hopefully it will make for a easier read with more frequent updates.
> 
> Side note, for those of you who are curious, Papergirl is coming along at its own pace. I would apologize for the delay but honestly I really think it will be worth it. In the mean time, have a fluff! And give thanks to the prompt supplier and beta reader.


End file.
